Earlier this year, Le Monde reached out to interview me about my new book, The New Spirit of Islamism. The conversation began with the ideological evolution of Islamist movements in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings and then turned into a detailed discussion on Turkey’s entrenchment in northern Syria and the new order Ankara is helping to construct there.
Published on February 1, 2025, under the headline “Auprès des nouvelles autorités syriennes, la Turquie joue le rôle de cabinet de conseil”, the interview explores how Turkey is not only projecting influence across the border but co-producing governance.
My book The New Spirit of Islamism traces the shared trajectories and distinct evolutions of the AKP, Tunisia’s Ennahda, and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood after 2011. Drawing on fieldwork and elite interviews from Tunis to Istanbul, the book argues that these movements, while emerging from similar Islamist traditions, have responded to the crisis of democratic legitimacy in very different ways. Turkey, under Erdoğan’s AKP, has not only adapted to the collapse of the democratic wave but has positioned itself as the ideological and logistical architect of post-Islamist governance models abroad — Syria being the latest striking case.
In the interview, I noted that Turkish bureaucrats, engineers, and intelligence operatives are now embedded in the day-to-day machinery of what remains of northern Syria’s institutions. From issuing diplomas to building road networks, Ankara is exporting a tailored model of governance that blends Islamist conservatism, market discipline, and strong executive control all of which are the hallmarks of the AKP’s own transformation.
I am grateful to Le Monde for offering a serious platform to examine these developments. Too often, Western coverage of the Syrian conflict is either security-focused or dismissive of the complex ideological realignments at play. But if we are to understand the future of Islamism — or the future of Syria — we must pay close attention to the practices being quietly installed while the world looks elsewhere.
The New Spirit of Islamism is now available through Bloomsbury. You can read the full interview in Le Monde here.